Foundations established

Benko’s trustee in bankruptcy sues “straw mom” Ingeborg

Signa founder Benko: liquidators are also looking for the vault in Liechtenstein

(Bild: Krone KREATIV, Starpix/Alexander Tuma, stock.adobe.com)

The next bombshell in the case surrounding Austria's best-known bankrupt: René Benko's trustees are now taking legal action against his mother Ingeborg, who set up several foundations with the failed real estate speculator. 

According to information from "Krone" and "News", the regional court in Innsbruck is likely to be the venue for the legal dispute. There were already whispers in court circles there on Tuesday morning that a highly explosive pleading had been received. According to this, Benko's trustee in bankruptcy is stepping up the pace against the founder of the financially ailing Signa conglomerate, who also filed for personal bankruptcy as an entrepreneur at the beginning of March 2024.

Mother as co-founder
However, the trustees in bankruptcy have concrete suspicions that the 47-year-old Tyrolean, who has officially claimed to live on 3,700 euros a month since filing for bankruptcy, may have transferred assets to his foundations in Austria and Liechtenstein. Both the Laura Private Foundation in Innsbruck and the Ingbe Foundation in Vaduz list Benko's 74-year-old mother Ingeborg as a co-founder and - unlike her son - as a beneficiary. Ingeborg Benko, a retired kindergarten teacher, is obviously seen as a "straw mother" for her son René.

According to reports, the lawsuit, which is also to be accompanied by an application for an interim injunction, is likely to be about Ingeborg Benko being prohibited by the courts from exercising her rights as founder for any longer. The aim of Benko's trustees is likely to be to obtain access to the donated assets for his many creditors. The foundations are therefore to be legally cracked. Most recently - as reported by "Krone" and "News" - unconventional shifts in assets close in time to the outbreak of the Signa insolvency wave had caused a stir.

Shifts of Lake Gardavillas
In August 2023 - just a few weeks before the first crash - six Lake Garda villas are said to have been transferred from Signa Holding to the Ingbe Foundation in Liechtenstein in exchange for a now worthless Signa Prime share package. According to confidential annual financial statements, Ingbe still had physical gold holdings worth 45 million euros at the end of 2022. In addition, there were three million Swiss francs and two million US dollars in cash bundles in various safe deposit boxes.

Some of Benko's co-investors, who have lost hundreds of millions, suspect that the Laura Private Foundation is a kind of "signa in signa". It is suspected that the real estate speculator, together with his closest confidants, may have built up a shadow empire of properties in Germany and Austria under the umbrella of this foundation. It can now be assumed that the public prosecutor's office for economic affairs and corruption is also interested in various asset transfers shortly before the big Signa bang. René Benko and possible accomplices are presumed innocent.